This Mississippi town with less than 500 people is ready for its TV debut

D’Lo — population 456 — may not be a household word, even in the Magnolia State. But that’s about to change as D’Lo readies for its closeup on national television. D’Lo is located in Simpson County and it is considered part of the metro Jackson area.

“Small Town, Big Mayor” debuts on UPTV at 8:30 p.m. Thursday. The latest reality show follows the ups and downs of D’Lo’s mayor, John Henry Berry, who has, according to the series’ trailer, made it his mission to keep the town from disappearing.

“If we don’t step up and do something, then D’Lo probably won’t be here in 30 years,” Berry said in the trailer.

The preview shows the cowboy hat-wearing Berry, touted as the “hardest working mayor in America” interacting with a some of the town’s residents, from doing repairs on a sewer to mowing yards.

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Although there are about 130 miles and several thousand people separating D’Lo and the Coast, the town does share some common ground with coastal cities. In the 30-minute series premiere, Berry travels to Jackson to ask the state Legislature to make golf cart usage legal in his city.

And the TV series is not the first time D’Lo has been in the national spotlight. The “siren scene” in the Cohen Brothers film “Oh Brother Where Art Thou” was shot on the banks of Strong River in D’Lo.